Chapel-en-le-Frith

and we in Nottingham have one of the highest paid heads of a tiny academy trust: see my previous post, we have a fight brewing to the north of the county of Derbyshire, in which I worked.

I don’t claim to know Chapel-en-le-Frith or the CofE Primary School there but, apparently, it got put into special measures in November. An all-too-familiar story has followed. They were told they had to meet the DfE academy broker even before they had had the result of the HMI monitoring visit. Judging by letters written by the Chair of Govs and the Headteacher, published on their website, they have been well-supported by the local authority and have received positive comments from the HMI. They obviously believe they are well on the way to getting out of special measures pretty soon, but that is not quick enough for Lord Nash. He’s accused them of not having a sustainable plan to make the improvements the school needs (which, if the head and chair of governors are to be believed, is laughable) and he has set a very tight timetable for ‘consultation’ before he effectively sacks the governors, appoints an Interim Executive Board and makes an ‘academy order’.

It is quite obvious that the senior management of the school and the governing body are united in opposition. They clearly believe they have the support of the vast majority of parents. Good luck to them in their fight – there are examples from elsewhere where academisation has been fought off.